12: The conservative Russian Congress further chips away at Yeltsin's power, authorizing its ability to suspend and remove the president.

April

25: Yeltsin finds some relief in a national referendum where 59 percent profess their faith in the president.

July

25: Russia's Central Bank gives citizens two weeks to replace old rubles, a move that sends the country into a near panic. Yeltsin extends the exchange amount and lengthens the exchange period to defuse the crisis.

September

21: Yeltsin disbands parliament and orders new elections. Meanwhile, Vice President Alexander Rutskoi declares himself the new leader and the parliament swears him in. Troops mobilize but Yeltsin emerges from yet another crisis in control.

June1: Russia's main stock index sinks 10.2 percent, continuing a massive investor flight from the country's markets that has aroused fears of a collapse in the ruble.

23: Yeltsin warns that Russia's finances are in an alarming condition and threatens to impose new tax code and other economic measures by decree. Yeltsin and Kiriyenko present another anti-crisis plan to parliament.

August9: Yeltsin fired Prime
Minister Sergei Stepashin and named as his replacement Vladimir Putin, a former
intelligence officer who became the fourth prime minister sacked by the erratic
Yeltsin in a year and a half